Game 5. Chengdu, November 9, 2025. Nearly 40,000 people in the arena, T1 against KT Rolster, a whole year down to one game. T1 closed it out and became the first team ever to win three Worlds in a row. For Lee Sang-hyeok, the mid laner everyone knows as Faker, it was a sixth Summoner's Cup. No player in the game's history has more. He was 29. Asked about it afterward, he said he had simply focused on the game as a professional player.
Here is the part people forget. He had his first three by the time he was 20. Then he went six years without one. In that stretch he lost a world final in tears, got benched, missed Worlds twice, and lost another final to a guy he went to high school with. On October 23, at 30, he plays the first match of his 11th Worlds.
Faker, what was that?
Start at the beginning, because the beginning is a highlight reel. April 6, 2013, his first pro match for SK Telecom T1, back when he still went by GoJeonPa. He was on Nidalee. About six minutes in, he killed the veteran Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong under Ambition's own tower. On the English broadcast, Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles thought something had broken, a computer or gameplay error. Nothing had broken. That was just the kid.
That summer came the one every League fan has seen. Korean league final, SK Telecom against KT Bullets, and KT won the first two games. By game 5 it was a Zed mirror in the mid lane, and KT's mid laner, Ryu, caught Faker alone. Faker won the duel. The clip still goes by one line, "Faker, what was that?", and Ryu's face afterward became iconic on its own. SK Telecom finished the reverse sweep, and Faker had his first major title.
That fall, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, SK Telecom swept China's Royal Club 3-0 and lifted the Summoner's Cup. In 2015 they beat the KOO Tigers 3-1 in the final and dropped one game the entire tournament. In 2016 they went the full five with Samsung Galaxy, 3-2, and Faker was tournament MVP. Three world titles. He was 20. Fans had already started calling him the Unkillable Demon King.
Before the Rift
Back up to Seoul. He was born there on May 7, 1996, and spent his early years in Gangseo District, raised by his grandparents and his father, Lee Kyung-joon. His dad has described him as introverted. He taught himself to solve Rubik's Cubes. He studied foreign languages on his own. He played Tekken and The King of Fighters at a local arcade, then moved on to PC games.
His grandmother helped raise him, and she is the one who encouraged him to chase esports. She still travels to his international tournaments to watch him play.
League of Legends launched in South Korea in 2011, and he got good fast. He was a student at Mapo High School when he asked his father to let him drop out and go pro. It took his father about a month to say yes.
Swept
Then the run ended. In 2017 SK Telecom made the final again, and Samsung Galaxy swept them 3-0. Nobody had ever beaten Faker in a world final before. When the last nexus fell, he was seen sobbing into his keyboard.
2018 was worse. On July 21 he was benched for Choi "Pirean" Jun-sik, and SK Telecom did not even qualify for Worlds. In 2019 they went out in the semis to G2 Esports. In February 2020 he signed a three-year renewal that made him a co-owner of T1, then spent most of that summer on the bench, and T1 missed Worlds again. In February 2021, after a loss to DRX, he benched himself for three weeks to reset. That fall, T1 lost in the Worlds semis.
2022 looked like the year. T1 went 18-0 in the spring regular season, the first team in LCK history to run the table. On November 5 they were back in a world final, against DRX. DRX's bot laner was Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu, who had gone to Mapo High School with Faker. DRX won it 3-2. At the press conference, Faker congratulated Deft, said DRX had been more focused, and said he did not think he had played as well as he could have. Then he said this.
"If another opportunity comes, I believe in myself to perform better."
Faker, at the post-match press conference after losing the World Championship final to DRX, November 5, 2022, as reported by Inven Global
The arm
The next opportunity nearly did not come. On June 17, 2023, in a match against BRION, his right arm started to hurt. He played through it for about two weeks. On July 2 he told everyone how bad it was and stepped away. Six days later, head coach Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, his old jungler, resigned. Without Faker in the mid lane, T1 won one of its next eight matches.
He came back on August 2. T1 finished 9-9 and squeaked into Worlds on league points. And Worlds that year was at home. On November 19, at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, T1 swept Weibo Gaming 3-0. At 27, Faker became the oldest player to win Worlds and the first to win four.
On November 2, 2024, at the O2 Arena in London, Bilibili Gaming had T1 down 2-1 in the final. T1 took the last two games. Faker was Finals MVP for the second time, and he had a fifth cup. In 2025 T1 lost the MSI final 3-2 to Gen.G and had to grind through the Worlds play-ins just to reach the main event. They ended it in Chengdu, in game 5, against KT. On December 18, 2025, he signed a four-year extension through 2029. He said it seemed he would spend his entire career at T1.
"Focusing on the process rather than wins and losses proved effective."
Faker, at a press conference at LoL Park in Seoul after renewing with T1 through 2029, December 18, 2025, as reported by Sports Kyunghyang
Thirty
The three-peat roster did not survive the winter. Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong, the bot laner who was Finals MVP in Chengdu, left for Hanwha Life Esports. Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan came in from JD Gaming. T1 lost to Dplus KIA in the LCK Cup playoffs and missed First Stand. In late May, a post in an online community threatened harm to his grandmother, and Seoul police opened an investigation.
MSI was at home, in Daejeon. On June 28 a 3-0 over TLAW gave him his 100th career MSI win, the first player ever to get there. He shrugged it off: winning on the big stage, he said, mattered more than piling up wins. On July 8, G2 Esports beat T1 3-1 in the lower bracket and sent them home. "We didn't expect to be eliminated this early by our own standards," said acting head coach Lim Jae-hyeon. Four days later, Hanwha Life won the whole thing, with Gumayusi. On September 12 Hanwha Life beat T1 again, 3-1 in the LCK lower bracket final, and T1 took Korea's third seed to Worlds.
Then South Korea picked him for its Asian Games team for the third straight time. In Nagoya he was the captain, but Hanwha Life's Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo started in the mid lane. Faker played one game, against India in the group stage. The rest of the way he sat beside Zeka and talked him through matchups and item builds. On October 2, at the Aichi Sky Expo, South Korea beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 for a second straight gold. Faker watched the final from the bench, and afterward he talked about Worlds.
"Winning Worlds is the next goal, but giving my all in pursuit of that championship is the most important goal of all."
Faker, after South Korea's Asian Games final win in Nagoya, October 2, 2026, as reported by Dot Esports
Worlds 2026 is in the United States. T1 opens the Swiss stage on October 23 in Allen, Texas, against LOS. The final is November 14 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. A win would make it four straight, and seven Summoner's Cups.
Thirteen years after the Zed mirror, the quiet kid who left Mapo High School is still T1's mid laner, signed through 2029. He has said it looks like he will finish his career there. And the thing he keeps talking about is still the process, not the trophies.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on Inven Global, Agence France-Presse via Malay Mail, Sports Kyunghyang, The Korea Herald, Dot Esports, Sheep Esports, Yahoo Sports, ONE Esports, Asia Economy, Dexerto, Upcomer, Insider Gaming, HappyGamer, Hexgate, Razer, Mein-MMO and Wikipedia's documented record of his career.
Sources (22)
Agence France-Presse via Malay Mail: T1 make esports history with third consecutive world title · The Korea Herald: Faker profile · Upcomer: Eight career-defining moments for Faker · Yahoo Sports: Four times a runner-up, KT Rolster's Score (2013 Summer final reverse sweep) · Sheep Esports: Faker turns 30 · Sheep Esports: All Worlds winners · Mein-MMO: The Worlds that brought dragons and a god to cry · Inven Global: Faker on Deft and the 2022 final · Dexerto: Faker returns from arm injury · Sports Kyunghyang: Faker renews with T1 through 2029 · Sheep Esports: T1 completes 2026 LCK roster · Inven Global: Faker on 100 MSI wins · Sports Kyunghyang: T1 eliminated at MSI 2026 · Inven Global: Lim Jae-hyeon on T1's early MSI exit · Sheep Esports: Hanwha Life defeats T1 3-1 · Insider Gaming: Faker and T1 qualify for Worlds 2026 · Dot Esports: Faker wins Asian Games gold · Sheep Esports: How Faker coached South Korea at the Asian Games · HappyGamer: Worlds 2026 Swiss stage round 1 matchups · ONE Esports: T1 head coach Bengi resigns · Hexgate: Worlds 2026 schedule · Razer: Faker returns to Worlds 2026 chasing history